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The Municipal University 



CARL HOLLIDAY 

Professor of English, Toledo University 



Reprinted from School and Society 

BY 

THE MUNICIPAL UNIVERSITIES 

OF 

CINCINNATI AKRON TOLEDO 



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THE MUNICIPAL UNIVERSITY 

I. Its Origin and Growth 
IL Its Theories and Its Purposes 
III. Its Actual Workings 



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THE MUNICIPAL UNIVERSITY 

I 

ITS ORIGIN AND ITS GROWTH 

The municipal university — the one thing needed to com- 
plete our American system of higher education. 

So declares President Charles W. Dabney, of the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati, the leading city university of the world. 
His words are approved by many of the prominent educators 
of America. Dr. J. McKeen Cattell, of Columbia University, 
expresses the belief that this ''will probably be the most im- 
portant movement of higher education in the next generation"; 
while the U. S. Commissioner of Education, P. P. Claxton, 
looking into the near future, prophesies: 

Probably within a quarter of a century most cities of 200,000 
or over and some even smaller, will have such institutions at 
the head of their system of education, organizing all other agen- 
cies, directing their energies and inspiring the people to strive for 
higher and better things. 

Perhaps the first intimation, even to many educators of 
rank, of the genuine importance of this new effort in popular 
education, came with the announcement in November, 1914, 
that a meeting of presidents of city colleges and universities 
had been held at Washington, and an Association of Urban 
Universities formed. Then for the first time many a college 
professor began really to understand what it means to vitalize 
education. For the municipal university is destined to become 
the social and economic dynamo of vast concentrated masses 
of our population. It has been recognized for a long time 
that the city is in need of scientific construction and recon- 
struction, and that this requires intelligent, responsible, skillful 
leadership; but this open recognition of the university's 
duty to the general city public is a thing of the last three 
decades. Probably originating in the university extension 
work of some daring institutions, it resolved itself into the 
theory that if the people can not come to the college the college 



CAhjiy^ 



must come to the people. To-day it is being realized that this 
principle can be most thoroughly followed in the relationship 

between the city and its municipally owned university. 

The city is the logical site for a great school. Colleges in 
villages and towns are not prospering. The old-fashioned 
theor}' of keeri"^- boys away from "the temptations of the 
great city" has proved fallacious; for, as some wiseacre has 
said: "God made the country, and man made the city, but 
the devil made the sn^'J- i:---:!.'' The city is in itself largely a 
university-. It anords hbraries. museums, hospitals, asylums, 
art galleries, great industries, experts in ever\- field, and such 
varied types ;: 5;:ie':y thi'z it is in itseh a vast experimental 
social laboratory. Here is opportunity to learn all things, 
save possibly agriculture, through actual observation and 
experience. It is but natural that the municipality- should 
begin to see its unrivaled abihty to educate its own citizen 
leaders. 

Again, this is the age of cities. The back-to-the-soil 
movement has not been a proncur-zt:. success; it has failed 
to tempt any appreciable percrnti^t of Americans away 
from the advantages of the city. In fact, during the last 
decade, the rural r ryulizirr. :: r:~e states — Ohio, for instance 
— has decreased neariy seven z tz :^:i:. The rural population of 
America is now down to about nfty-one per cent., and surely 
this is su^icient; for it is apparent that nfty-ine ye: pie cut 
of ever}- hundred should be able to produce en:eu-h z::z for 
the other forty-nine. In some eastern states, the rural per- 
centage is only thirty-eirh:. a.ni is s'.ib itz'lii^z. Drubtless. 
the new tendency to c::iK:r:-y :y-z:is:nts, z: nic"e ir.ctcries :r:m 
city to open territory, will counteract to some extent this 
present dee.ine: :u: :e^". i: any. of our cities will actually 
decrease in size leciuse ■:: this. 

Practically all the ereat universities in history h^'-e been 
located in cities. The famous institutions at Padua, Rome, 
Leipzig, Berlin. Copenhagen. E'linburgh and Glasgow are 
examples. In medieval days the so-called University :: Paris 

complained of being run ov;;r 'zy cre~bs ci stue^ents scurryi::g 
from the lecture room of one professor to that of another. 
Sometimes the early cities recognized such colleges as semi- 
municinal. and granted them funds: but for the most part 



these foreign universities have been supported through state 
aid and private donations. This has been, for example, the 
condition in Germany. But within the last two decades the 
German cities have begun to realize the need of genuine muni- 
cipal colleges, where less theory and more actual technical 
training might be presented than in the great state schools, 
and doubtless if the war had not occurred, we should to-day 
be hearing much about these radical departures in German 
higher education. 

Thus in October, 1914, the Municipal University of 
Frankfort-on-the-Main was inaugurated with ceremonies 
scarcely equalled in dignity by any similar occasion. The 
tone of the whole event indicated that here was something 
new under the sun; for, though the state of Prussia stubbornly 
retained the right to appoint all professors, this was a deliberate 
effort on the part of a city to free itself intellectually from 
state domination. A brief examination of the development 
of this institution may be enlightening as showing how easily 
and almost unconsciously a city university may gradually 
come into existence. In 1688 the Frankfort city library 
was established. Then came a city medical institution and 
in 1763 these two and some semi-public museums were com- 
bined into the Senckenberg Institute, so named from one of 
the noted medical investigators of the city. Early in the 
nineteenth century this institute was almost in a bankrupt 
condition; but note the method of its rescue. In 1816 the 
Polytechnical Society was founded; then in 1817 the Sencken- 
berg Natural History Societ}^ and in 1824 the Physical Club 
and the New City Library. Now began a concerted cry for 
new buildings. The clubs and societies were performing 
public service; they were entitled to working space. The 
founding of the Hochschule or Technical College in 1866 and 
the City Hospital and Clinic in 1896 pointed unerringly to 
the need for a grouping of the educational forces into one great 
plant. Then in 1903 more than two million marks were raised 
for the Carl Jugel Institute, and then followed a union of this 
institution with the city Academy of Social and Commercial 
Science. By 1910 the hue and cry for a concentration of all 
these forces into one great plant with adequate buildings 
could no longer be ignored, and after careful deliberation the 
city council authorized in March, 1912, the establishment 



of a municipal university. Thus the united efforts of at least 
nine societies, clubs and small institutions so wrought upon the 
civic mind that a great and rich university of infinite possibilities 
has resulted. 

The same evolution had reached a fruitful stage in various 
other German cities just before the war began. In 1912 a 
similar plan of grouping many smaller educational efforts 
around the city Colonial Institute was proposed at Hamburg, 
and large sums were appropriated. The same year Dresden 
began to group the city technical high school, the veterinary 
college and other institutions into a university and practically 
S5.000..000 was donated for the purpose, Cologne was at the 
same time following a similar plan, while in October, 1911. 
Dusseldorf built around its city commercial college a university 
for training in municipal administration. 

The development of the city university has been no less 
remarkable and rapid in Great Britain. In 1800 the British 
Isles possessed but seven universities; since then seventeen 
new ones have been created, and seven of these are less than 
fifteen years old. To-day the following are practically munici- 
pal universities: Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, 
Bristol, Belfast, and the so-called National University of Ire- 
land. The type of work undertaken by these schools would 
make the old-time masters of Oxford and Cambridge turn 
over^ in their graves. For, in these inventions of modern 
education, the traditions of the two venerable universities have 
been ignored, and the new schools are offering courses that 
lead to perspiration as well as inspiration. They are real 
universities, it must be remembered; all possess colleges of 
liberal arts and schools of engineering and applied science 
and medicine, and nearly all have in addition full fledged 
colleges of music, pharmacy, commerce, education and law. 
^Moreover, they reach the sweaty multitude in a manner un- 
dreamed of when Tom Brow- -^^nt to Oxford; for classes 
meet at night as well as in ilic d^y, and extension lecturers 
"wag their pow" in all parts of town and country-. 

Moreover, these young schools are studying the needs 
of the community workers, and are adapting their courses 
accordingly. Thus the Universit}' of Sheffield offers strong 
courses in metallurgy, especially of iron; the college at Not- 
tingham — to some extent municipal — makes a special study 



of lace and hosiery; while Leeds goes into the chemistry and 
texture of cloth, leather and dyes. The British have quickly 
acknowledged the usefulness of such radical changes in edu- 
cation, and consequently these municipal universities receive 
liberal funds, not only from their own cities, but from the 
neighboring counties, and even from Parliament. Indeed, 
in some cases Parliament has granted as high as forty per 
cent, of the total annual income. Moreover, the national 
government has so thoroughly recognized their coming im- 
portance that it has appointed national representatives to sit 
in the governing board with the municipal representatives 
and members from those workers* associations that have 
contributed to the funds. 

Is it not evident that the municipal university idea is 
likely to develop into a world-wide movement? Originating 
in the United States as early as 1837 with the founding of the 
College of Charleston and the University of Louisville, it 
practically lay dormant until within the last fifteen years when 
it suddenly began — probably through the example of the 
University of Cincinnati — to develop surprising momentum. 
It is true that several municipal colleges opened between 1837 
and 1900; such as the College of the City of New York in 
1847, the University of Cincinnati in 1871 and the University 
of Toledo in 1884; but it was not until the beginning of the 
present century that the true function and the high importance 
of this new type of college dawned upon the municipal mind. 

Only two institutions in America were originally founded 
as genuine municipal universities — the College of the City of 
New York and the University of Louisville; but others 
established on private endowments have been taken over by 
cities until all those just mentioned, besides the University of 
Akron, established in 1913, and Hunter College, New York 
City, are bona fide municipal; while the following institu- 
tions, controlled and financed by the municipality because of 
their city normal work, are recognized by the U. S. Depart- 
ment of Education as of college rank: Chicago Normal School, 
Harris Teachers' College, St. Louis, and Campbell College, 
Holton, Kansas. 

Evidently the idea is contagious; for within the last five 
years a number of the larger universities of America have as- 



sumed a semi-municipal character that bids fair ultimately 
to transform them into municipally owned institutions. For 
instance, New York University lately inaugurated classes for 
municipal employees, held in the municipal building. Nearly 
300 city workmen are enrolled in such immediately applicable 
courses as accounting, business English and the government 
of New York City. Another effort in municipal cooperation 
is found in the highly valuable investigations in city affairs 
now being conducted by graduate students, and in the graduate 
seminar held in the municipal building, where city records 
are always near at hand. Again, in 1914, the university 
established the so-called Government House, an institution 
where students mingle with voters and political workers 
and come into direct touch with political efforts of a non- 
partisan nature. Once each week the director of the House 
holds a seminar dealing with some phase of city administration, 
and on some other night in the week each student takes charge 
of a club meeting somewhere in the cit}^ and directs the dis- 
cussions of young voters and prospective citizens. 

Likewise, the University of Pittsburgh, while not a munici- 
pal institution, certainly approaches the type in its cooperative 
work. It has indeed received money from the city for special 
purposes, and ha.s aided in numerous civic movements. The 
students in the engineering department spend one term of 
eleven weeks of each school year in Pittsburgh factories; 
the students of sanitary engineering work with the city health 
department; the School of Mines regularly sends instructors 
to neighboring mining towns to conduct classes; the Depart- 
ment of Economics reaches over 600 daily through its extension 
courses in business law, insurance, real estate and accounting; 
and the directors of the Observator}^ offer lectures free to the 
public every night during much of the year. Probably the 
most practical work of all is that done by the Mellon Institute 
of Industrial Research, associated with the University, an 
institute which, by means of its fellowships provided by Pitts- 
burgh industries, investigates problems of grave industrial 
and civic import. 

It is apparent that the municipal university movement 
is no mere passing fad; it has come to stay. Numerous large 
cities are inquiring into the possibilities of it— Cleveland, Ohio, 
and San Diego, for instance — and state codes are undergoing 

8 



examinations to see how far a city may go in this direction. 
For if a city college is to prosper, it must not be hampered by 
state laws constructed by rural legislators ; it must be sensitive 
to the wishes of its own citizenship. The College of the City 
of New York was for years badly restricted and limited by its 
charter, and only in the last four years has really begun to 
exert its legitimate influence. At present thirty-five states 
m.ake no provision in their codes for such municipal institu- 
tions; but in many of these states the absence of direct denial 
of such right might be interpreted as permission. Thus, 
Virginia has educational laws so broad that any city in the 
commonwealth might establish a city college; Mississippi's 
code gives the city such broad powers as to make the plan 
most feasible; while New Jersey, with its law providing 
education for all between the ages of five and twenty, might 
legally allow cities to establish such colleges. 

The state of Ohio is the only commonwealth expressly 
declaring in its code that cities may establish municipal uni- 
versities and levy a special tax for the purpose, and probably 
for this reason the three most active city universities in America 
— those of Cincinnati, Akron and Toledo — are in this state. 
Certainly in these three cities it is being proved that the 
municipal college is the cheapest agency for higher education 
yet devised in America, and at the same time the most stead}^ 
and permanent financially; for the people of a city will not 
long see their own institution suffer, while the university in- 
come normally increases as the wealth of the city grows. 
The annual revenue for Cincinnati, for example, is about 
$4,552,000; the University, receiving only 4.85 mills on each 
dollar of this, flourishes and does magnificent work. 

Independent of the caprices of millionaires, free from the 
domination of ignorant and prejudiced state legislators, 
gaining the enthusiastic good will of a compact body of people 
through its unceasing service to them, the cit}^ university is 
the most truly democratic form of advanced education known 
to man. Appealing to the interest and pride of the average 
working citizen, it rises with the rise of that citizen's intelli- 
gence, and its every effort to better his condition returns 
material rewards to itself. It is enriched through its own 
giving; the expenditure of its own vigor but adds to its vitality. 



II 

ITS THEORIES AND ITS PURPOSES 

The object of any education is to render the truth ser- 
viceable to mankind. *Tn order then," sa)^s Dean Schneider, 
of the Universit}^ of Cincinnati, "to render the truths of 
philosophy, of histor^^ of economics, of science, sureh' and 
directly available in the day's work, it is necessary to teach 
them to men who are also well trained in practise. Obvioush^ 
the training in theory and the training in practise should be 
organized into one weU-balanced, coordinated, centrally 
directed plan." The most energetic city universities, there- 
fore, such as Cincinnati, Akron and Toledo, are demanding 
that their students put their book knowledge into actual 
application in city works, factories and industries. Thus, 
in these universities students in all engineering and technical 
courses ma}'' serve a part of each year in some industrial plant 
of the neighborhood and thus become experienced wage-earners 
while becoming theoretical experts. This cooperation be- 
tween school and industry is, however, no new thing; for 
as far back as the fifteenth century Martin Luther, when 
pleading for universal education, declared that he did not 
expect all children to go to school all the time, but to spend a 
few hours dail}^ in class and the remaining hours at some 
productive, remunerative work. 

The modern commercial and democratic self-ruling city is 
something new in world history. It has, therefore, numerous 
unsolved problems for which histor}" can offer no guiding 
experience. These new cities are, moreover, concentrated 
empires of wealth; certainly New York and Chicago and 
probably Cincinnati and Toledo each possess more riches 
than the entire United States when the Union was founded. 
And yet slowness, inefficiency, corruptness are so characteristic 
of American city government that the average man believes 
with cynical indifference that such characteristics are in- 
evitable. The fact is the average municipal government in the 
United States has developed from the old-time district and 

10 



small-town government, and the flims}^^ structure has proved 
too weak for the vast new organism. It will not do. The 
code of rules and regulations that maintained the primitive 
settlement was never meant for that great machine, the modern 
city, and the mechanism is clogged with ancient debris. 

Just here is where the municipal university makes its 
power felt — in the creation and application of a new system 
of government among men. If the factory demands experts 
surely the city may demand them; city officers should know 
not only the how, but the why. Heretofore the mere fact that 
a man possessed a general college education has been con- 
sidered sufficient guarantee that he could handle successfully 
some branch of a city's business. But it is now discerned that 
the possession of a classical or cultural education does not in 
itself make a man a good superintendent of schools, or a city 
magistrate fit to pass judgment on derelicts and defectives, 
or an efficient director of public works to guard the water 
supply or the municipal finances. There are now more than 
fifty distinct professions, and while the old-fashioned education 
gave breadth and culture, it did not prepare men for the 
specific duties of city leadership in any of these professions, 
as is so badly needed today. The shame of our modern city 
lies in its tremendous waste of money on petty offices held by 
inefficient local politicians. It is, therefore, one of the 
purposes of the municipal university to supply experts, accurate 
information and technical advice to a community in which 
it has made a special study of conditions. 

It is evident that the municipality itself needs the uni- 
versity as much as do its boys and girls. The city can not 
rely upon a distant state university or a private institution 
to make intimate studies of local problems, and to provide 
experts thoroughly familiar with local resources and limitations. 
Again, the time has come for making the American city per- 
manent. For generations we have been erecting flimsy and 
ugly makeshifts to meet immediate needs; but now we are 
beginning to plan for two and three centuries ahead. The 
work of such institutions as the Universities of Cincinnati, 
Akron and Toledo, in providing precise information, accurate 
calculations, economically and csthetically sound plans, and 

II 



expert leaders is of incalculable value in the campaign for 
permanent civic e:fficiency and beauty. 

What in reality is a municipal university, and how does 
it differ from any other college? Let us first see what it is not. 

It is not a city normal school, although it may have a teachers' 
college as one department. It is not a municipal textile school 
such as may be found in various Xew England towns. It is 
different from a privately endowed or state university which 
may happen to be located in a city. It is. in the words of 
President Kolbe, of the Municipal University of Akron, an 
institution of higher learning, supported mainly by municipal 
taxation, requiring graduation from a first-grade high-school 
for entrance, and maintaining a four-year course in arts and 
letters, around which a greater or less number of other schools 
or departments may be grouped. Its work, moreover, is 
very definitely laid out for it: (l) To develop intelligent and 
efficient citizens, and (2) to grant the city expert advice, 
service and cooperation. 

To the numerous cities now contemplating this educa- 
tional move it will be of genuine profit to note the possibiHties 
and actual workings of this new type of institution. Ever\' 
city has a soul, a distinctive personality, or else it is not a 
city, but a mere collection of people. Nothing else can equal 
the municipal college in developing this civic mind and soul. 
It can stimulate the intellectual, artistic and social life of a 
municipality as no other agency .can. It tempts the citizen 
to use his leisure hours in a sane, healthy, profitable manner. 
In many cities the average laborer works but eight hours daily 
for five and a half days, a total of forty-four out of one hundred 
and sixty-eight hours of life. Granting the citizen fiity-six 
hours for sleep, what does he do with the remaining sixty- 
eight? Here is where the municipal university gets in some 
effective work with its extension department, its club meetings, 
its concerts and recitals. With its clientele a compact unit 
it can attend to such activities far more efficiently and regu- 
larly than can the state university with its extensive territor}', 
high traveling expenses and var\4ng types of population. 
The College of the City of Xew York, for instance, has had 
for its music recitals alone an audience of over 500,000; its 
practical courses reach OA'er 800 students every night; while its 

12 



classes for municipal employees enroll nearly 300. It proves 
that the average citizen fritters away his leisure because noth- 
ing more interesting than frittering is offered him. 

It is an established fact that the more schooling a city 
offers the longer its children are inclined to go to school. If a 
school system has only elementary grades many children quit 
before completing even these; if a high-school goal be added, 
a far larger percentage complete the elementary grades; while 
if a city college be added, a surprising increase of high-school 
graduates results. It is but the normal attraction of the goal 
ahead. Again, it is commonly believed to-day that higher 
education should be within the reach of all, but the state 
university, even with its free tuition and the payment of 
railwaj^ fare, is still an impossibility for the son of the average 
American laborer. Thus, an accurate census of students in 
the University of Cincinnati has proved that of the 2,200 
enrolled, 1,500 were actual residents of the city, and, of these, 
more than 1,000 could not possibly have gone away to school. 
Indeed, the parents of all these students are so limited in 
finances, that forty per cent, can not own a home, and forty- 
five per cent, make less than $1,500 annually. Over eighty- 
five per cent, of the entire student body worked for a living 
before entering college, and seventy-five per cent, are earning 
their expenses while attending, their total wages amounting 
to over $100,000 yearly. It is no marvel that in 1914 only 
255 students left Cincinnati to go elsewhere for a college 
education. 

The municipal university not only can aid in creating 
the civic mind and soul, but can largely regulate the quality 
of that mind and soul. As Dean Burriss, of the College for 
Teachers in the University of Cincinnati, says: 

The municipal university is the only type of higher institu- 
tion which can have adequate facilities for the scientific study of 
many of our most important school questions. 

If, for example, an educational survey is needed the local 
city college can do it far more intelligently, quickly and cheaply 
than can any imported agency. In elevating the tone of the 
city schools, the effect of the municipal university is sur- 
prising; the fact that Cincinnati now has possibly the highest 

13 



standard of public schools in America is freely acknowledged 
by its citizens as due to the influence of the city university. 

But perhaps the city politician or the manufacturer may 
ask, "How does it help the cit}^ financially?" Here we come 
to the most surprising departure from the conventional ever 
seen in either the educational or civic field. At present the 
most important study in any university seems to be the problem 
of economics and sociology, and particularly is this true in the 
municipal college; for as President Dabney has said: 

The university mind is becoming the city mind, and the city 
itself is becoming a university for training its o^n servants. 

Therefore, the municipal college has taken upon itself 
the duty of analyzing the city's needs, and discovering ways 
and means of answering such needs. The old-fashioned 
college cast its theoretical bread upon the waters, hoping 
that it would finally land somewhere; the municipal university 
sends both its theoretical and practical bread in just the proper 
form and texture to the precise spot where it is immediately 
needed. 

This means the end of the ancient strife between "the 
town and the gown"; for the one can work for the other. 
The college department of engineering can do all city sur- 
veying, planning of water systems and sewers, and super- 
vising of paving, street work and parking. The medical 
department can do, at little expense, the work now done by 
the city board of health at hea\^' expense. The department 
of social science can make far more efficiently and cheaply the 
examinations of derelicts and defectives, and can super^-ise all 
public charity work without using fifty per cent, of the income 
on administrative expenses, as is actually the case today in 
several large American cities. The teachers' college and 
department of economics can take the place of the municipal 
ci\-il service board, and can pro\dde a municipal reference 
librars' and bureau of public information where facts untainted 
with political prejudice can quickly be obtained by officers 
and citizens in general. The scientific departments can do 
for the mere cost of chemicals all testing, grading and cost 
calculations for the city. The director of physical education 
can supervise all city playgrounds, while the extension de- 

14 



partment can furnish all public entertainments, concerts, 
club meetings, etc. 

All this seems highly and pleasingly theoretical; but at 
the various municipal colleges it is actually being done, as we 
shall see later. Some of the courses now being offered at these 
city universities, if at all comprehensible to college professors 
of fifty years ago, would have made them turn up their aca- 
demic noses in disgust and would have caused them to wonder 
what the colleges are coming to anyway. Thus, in the cata- 
logue of the University of Akron we discover such subjects 
as ''Municipal Organization and Management," the "Chem- 
istry of India Rubber," *' Household Chemistry," "House 
Planning," "Dress," "Textiles," and "the House." And at 
Cincinnati — "Dietetics," "Food Economy," "Lunch-Room 
and Tea-Room Management," "Institutional Management," 
"The Family," "Wool and Silk," "Clothing Economy," 
"Rhythms, Songs and Games," "Organization of Mothers' 
Meetings," "Water Colors and Crayons," "Practical Photo- 
graphy." And at Toledo — "Credits and Collections," "Auto- 
mobile," "Corporation Finance," "Railroad Surveying," 
"Monopolies and Trusts," "Principles of Human Behavior," 
"Business Correspondence," "Principles of Advertising," "So- 
cial Achievement," and "Sanitation." 

All this is a far cry from the days when boys at Harvard 
asked for their meat and bread and "small beer" in Latin, 
debated in Greek, and discussed such topics as "Natural 
Depravity," "Predestination," and "Man as a Free Moral 
Agent." That kind of training was utilitarian in that day; 
"Household Chemistry" and "Textiles" are utilitarian in this 
day. The municipal university is simply realizing what some 
other institutions are not realizing: that the times and the 
needs of the times are changing and that true education looks 
forward, not backward. 



15 



Ill 

ITS ACTUAL WORKINGS 

We have noted the origin and the growth of the municipal 
university; we have seen its raison d'etre, its advantages, and 
its purposes; let us examine the actual results now being 
obtained by three typical institutions of this character — the 
University of Toledo, the University of Akron and the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati. 

In these institutions, as in all other American municipal 
schools, the tendency toward an ever-increasing cooperation 
between the college and the city is most noticeable. Every 
department of municipal administration becomes more and 
more a university laboratory where students may study the 
actual workings of a vast enterprise. The students of the 
University of Cincinnati use daily the public schools as their 
workshops where theories may be put into practise, and here 
they learn to teach by observing experts in the act, or by 
taking charge of classes in the presence of these experts. The 
activities of the health board, police court, water and sewerage 
departments, hospitals, asylums and city treasury become 
in the student's eyes a part of the university life. In return 
these cities mentioned above are- coming more and more to 
expect expert advice and actual municipal service from the 
college faculty and student body. In arranging its financial 
and educational policy the Board of Education feels free to call 
upon the administrative experts of the university, and in 
Cincinnati the College of Education has considerable part in 
examining and promoting city school teachers, and thus not 
only saves money for the city, but obviates the old-time 
opportunity of gaining the job through personal or political 
pull. In all these cities the university library becomes closely 
related with the city library and duplication of books is avoided; 
what is of the city is of the university, and vice versa) while 
gradually the extension work spreads over the municipality 
and encourages every citizen to continue his education even 
into mature life. 

16 



The University of Toledo, recognizing that many students 
can not go to college steadily for four years, has wisely divided 
its institutions into a junior college and a senior college. The 
first, leading to the degree of Apprentice in Arts, familiarizes 
the student with his urban environment and introduces to 
him the larger, more general fields of human thought. Thus, 
the work of the first two years leads him toward something 
and lands him somewhere — which is more than the work of 
the liberal arts college generally does. The senior college, 
leading to the bachelor's degree, requires a more intensive 
study of problems of civic or scientific import, and therefore 
demands that the student select a major subject and one minor 
related to it. In addition he must accomplish some piece of 
investigation for the city, or perform some task in which many 
citizens will be interested. Is not this, after all, the very idea 
of service, the very vitalizing of education, the very training 
toward citizenship that educators have theorized about for 
so long? 

There is not much trouble, of course, in the University of 
Toledo or any other municipal college, in determining the best 
course for the student. It is largely predetermined. Those 
studies applying most directly to the student's citizenship must 
be at the core of all. Thus we find the Toledo faculty favoring 
the following subjects: Principles of human behavior, 3 hours; 
university education, 2 hours; modern social problems, 
4 hours; modern economic and political problems, 4 hours; 
historical study of modern European and American social, 
industrial and economic problems, 6 hours; rhetoric, 5 hours; 
modern English and American literature, 4 hours; sciences, 
6 hours; physical training, 4 hours; electives, 22 hours. In 
the course on human behavior the student discusses how he 
behaves and why, and his influence over the conduct of others. 
In university education he discovers what the universities 
of the past and the present have done and are endeavoring to 
do. In modern English and American literature he investi- 
gates the effect of literature on the individual and on society. 
Each of the required subjects is viewed from its relationship 
to man as a social being and citizen. 

The city and the citizens of Toledo are more and more 
looking to their municipal university for guidance in certain 

17 



phases of public activity and also for what might be termed 
"popiilar" instruction. For instance, more than one hundred 
and twenty different free lectures were offered during the 1917 
semester by the extension department; a course in sales- 
manship was given at an early morning hour in the offices of a 
large real estate firm to those employed in selling real estate; 
while the College of Commerce of the University conducted 
a large class in the great plant of the Willys- Overland Auto- 
mobile Company. The University Public Ser\4ce Laboratories 
are constantly examining causes of contagion and keep a 
sharp pair of eyes upon the quality and cleanliness of the 
milk and food sold in the city. The University Public Ser^dce 
Bureau, besides affording a clearing house for all sorts of civic 
information, has made gas and electricity tests that have made 
the producing companies wince. Aga.in, the University 
Psj'chological Clinic is constantly called upon by teachers 
and the city courts to examine defective children and so-called 
criminals, and mar^'elous cures have been wrought, not only 
among minors but among men and women of mature years. 
Lastly, the Department of Economics and Sociology' is regu- 
larly called upon to make out the annual report of the police 
department, while various professors have been requested to 
drop their "academic dignity" and take charge of police classes 
in Law, English, Psychology, etc. 

Akron pays thjrough a tax levy about S90,000 annually 
for its municipal university and gets heavy returns from the 
investment; for besides having a most excellent college at 
hand for training its own citizens, the community receives 
material aid in several fields. The city justly demands that 
only those students whose parents live in the city, or who can 
prove one year's continuous residence at Akron shall be re- 
lieved of all tuition fees. The child of a non-resident owning 
property in the city may receive credit toward his fees to the 
extent of the taxes actually paid in Akron by the non-resident 
during the year; but otherwise the outsider pays his share 
of the expense of his education. 

The University of Akron, opened January 1, 1914, was 
formerly Buchtel College under the control of the Universalists. 
In April, 1913, it was proposed to turn over the plant and 
endowment to the city to be used as a municipal school; in 

18 



December the transfer was accomplished; and the University 
has flourished since as never before. It consists of a College 
of Liberal Arts; a College of Engineering managed on the Cin- 
cinnati cooperative plan, explained later; a School of Home 
Economics; a Department of Civic Cooperation, which co- 
operates through the Bureau of City Tests (a part of the 
University) with various city departments, the Chamber of 
Commerce, and the Bureau of Municipal Research; and the 
so-called combination courses with the state university and 
other institutions in agriculture, law and medicine. Evidently 
the institution fills a real need; for seventy-five per cent, of 
the Akron high-school graduates who continue their education 
attend the local college. 

The Department of Civic Cooperation is a genuine boon 
to the pocketbook of the city; for through the Bureau of Tests 
the University aids in chemical and physical testing of city 
purchases and bacteriological investigations for the board of 
health; through cooperation with the Bureau of Municipal 
Research civic officials and the general public are supplied with 
information of civic value; and for some time through a 
bureau of industrial-chemical research investigations of chem- 
ical problems for both the city and private industries were car- 
ried on. The Department of Political Science and Sociology 
cooperates with the board of health and the director of city 
charities, and the students in this department and the engi- 
neering school have made such accurate surveys of housing 
conditions and paving needs in Akron that the information is 
in constant use by city officials. Advanced students organize 
and direct the recreation clubs of the city schools, and it is now 
proposed that the municipal playgrounds be placed under the 
supervision of the professor of physical education, and the 
inspection of restaurants, bakeries, etc., be directed by the 
Department of Domestic Science. 

The University of Akron is making its influence especially 
felt in the industrial activities of the city. Akron is probably 
the greatest rubber manufacturing center in the world, and 
the institution naturally grants much attention to the sciences 
related to this particular industry. That the rubber com- 
panies appreciate this attention was evidenced in 1917 when 
several of them united in establishing in the University thirty 

19 



industrial scholarships. The companies pay the student's 
tuition and fees, and employ him during alternate two weeks 
periods at $75.00 per month for the actual time worked, and 
the length of the course is four years of eleven months each. 
Moreover, through cooperation with the rubber manufacturers, 
the university offers to graduates of any colleges two industrial 
fellowships in the Chemistry of Rubber, Not only do these 
fellowships grant free tuition and $300.00 annually but they 
include at the close of the year high-class positions in the 
various plants offering the fellowships. 

By far the greatest municipal university in the world is 
that of Cincinnati. As stated earlier, it receives less than five 
per cent, of the city revenues, and yet it is a genuine university 
with Graduate School, College of Liberal Arts, College of Engin- 
eering, a Teachers College, Medical College, College of Com- 
merce, School of Nursing and Health, Schoolof Household Arts, 
Kindergarten Training School, Observatory, Municipal Refer- 
ence Bureau, Bureau of City Tests and affiliations with numerous 
other schools, hospitals, libraries and public institutions of 
the city. Connected with its own library are the incalculably 
valuable collections of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, and of the Historical and Philoso- 
phical Society of Ohio. Its relations with the various schools 
of music, the public art collections, the zoological garden, 
the public schools, are such as to make practically every 
intellectual activity of Cincinnati a part of the university life. 

And yet with the constantly increasing cost of everything 
else the expense to Cincinnati of each student has constantly 
decreased. In 1874 each scholar cost the city $350 per year, 
in 1885 only $190, and now but a little over $90. This is 
indeed providential; for seventy-seven per cent, of the stu- 
dents are of parents with no higher education whatever; they 
are truty the products of the average American people, and 
possess little surplus means. 

It was at this institution that the famous cooperative 
plan of theory and practice in technical study — commonly/ 
called the Cincinnati plan — originated. The student of 
engineering, for instance, may take either the four years' 
theoretical course, or the five years' cooperative course, the 

20 



latter being by far the more valuable. In this two weeks of 
class work alternate with two weeks of actual shop work for 
w^ages throughout eleven months of the year for five years. 
More than eighty manufacturing firms of the city cooperate 
in this plan, and the student graduates with a knowledge 
so practical that he is of immediate value to an industrial 
plant. He receives not only wages, but college credit for his 
work in factory or mill; for a supervisor, known as a shop 
coordinator, a technical graduate with thorough experience, 
spends his mornings with classes at the University and his 
afternoons with students in the shop, watches closely the 
efficiency and speed of production of each college worker, 
credits him according to the ability shown, and later explains 
the function and purposes of the article produced by the 
scholar-apprentice. It has been called "the most significant 
movement in all educational history; for it fulfils every item 
in the theory of learning by doing." It has spread to numerous 
other schools of engineering and scientific study, and will in 
time be the only recognized way of gaining technical knowledge. 

And what else is this educational dynamo doing for the 
industrial and civic life of Cincinnati ? Its various medical 
departments serve free nearly eighty thousand patients per 
year. Its orthopedic dispensary annually examines, treats 
and supplies with mechanical helps many hundred cripples. 
Its psychological clinic investigates the causes of retardation 
in the city's defective students, prescribes the proper studies 
and methods, and has led to the creation of a special public 
school for retarded children. Its Teachers College has trained 
nearly 800 of the 1,100 teachers in the city schools, examines 
applicants for positions in the system, recommends instructors 
for promotion, offers to city teachers certain courses which 
automatically lead to an increase in salary, and with the co- 
operation of other university departments doubled the muni- 
cipal school appropriation in two years, and raised the stand- 
ard of the teachers probably above that of any other city corps 
of instructors in America. The Department of Political Science 
maintains a reference bureau where one may find collected and 
digested all information that council, city officer or general 
public could desire in the field of civic activities. The De- 
partment of Social Science cooperates with the juvenile court 

21 



in furnishing volunteer officers, with the city department of 
charities and corrections in obtaining means of relief, with the 
House of Refuge in making vice investigations, with the 
Associated Charities in searching out genuine needs and 
frauds, with the Anti-Tuberculosis League in making health 
surveys, with the Union Bethel and the Jewish settlement 
in club work and collecting statistics, with the Juvenile Pro- 
tective Association in surveys of the needs and dangers of the 
young of the city, with the Council of Social Agencies in surveys 
of social conditions, with the Social Workers' Club, the Con- 
sumers' League and a host of other organizations. The Univer- 
sity performs all chemical and microscopic work for the city 
hospital; the students of engineering serve as assistants 
in the city engineering department; the engineering in- 
structors serve as consulting experts in problems of the water- 
works, street car system and telephone system. The School of 
Household Arts cooperates vv^ith the General Hospital. The 
directors of the Observatory provide declinations and geo- 
graphical coordinates to city surveyors and engineers, and 
offer free lectures on astronomy many nights in the year. 
The College of Commerce aids the chamber of commerce in 
making industrial surveys and estimates, and in gathering 
statistics. The children's clinic maintains several milk sta- 
tions and sends nurses throughout the city to train mothers in 
the care of their babes. The Department of Botany has charge 
of the city bird reserve and school gardening, and aids in the 
management of the famous zoological garden. The Colleges 
of Liberal Arts and Commerce maintain throughout the city 
night classes of college rank five nights in the week, enroll each 
year over 600 students in such courses, and offer annually more 
than two hundred lectures which -are attended by thousands 
of citizens. 

The Bureau of City Tests analyzes and estimates the value 
of all material to be purchased by the city, such as antiseptics, 
asphalt, cement, burlap, oils, coal, paints, rubber, roofing and 
soaps, and the firm that attempts to flim-flam the city of 
Cincinnati is liable to be fooled. For among the frauds 
discovered by this bureau, to the profit of hundreds of thousands 
of dollars to the city, are the following: paint with 22 per 
cent, benzine instead of turpentine; carbon black paint 

22 



almost entirely mineral graphite; bad cement; coal with 
44 per cent, ash; cylinder oil that was worthless in cold 
weather; sand of low grade, and rubber pump-valves made 
entirely of vegetable fiber. 

Thus have we departed in these days from the academic 
theories of the Harvard and Yale that Cotton Mather and 
Jonathan Edwards knew. No more do our students argue 
the metaphysical question as to how many angels can dance 
on the point of a needle; they (the students) are busy dis- 
covering how many germs are dancing on the citizen's bread 
and butter. Our colleges, in short, have turned from a study 
of heaven to an investigation of how long we can delay our 
journey there. And this is well — for most of us. For the 
municipal university with its overwhelming zeal for service, 
bids fair to make our cities beautiful, healthful and attractive 
enough to tempt all earthly citizens to remain earthly as long 
as possible. It is the climax of civic training in this land 
of cities; as President Dabney says, "the one thing needed 
to complete our American system of higher education." 



23 



LBDMAKY OF CONGRESS 



019 759 746 A 



